Saray Muhallebicisi

Five stories of diner and dessert goodness. Mix of tourists and locals. Great kunefe. Soup looked good from afar.

The kunefe here is ridiculously good! The salep was good, the mastik pudding was a little too perfumed with mastik extract. Still, i keep coming back to this place for the kunefe and it doesn’t disappoint!

During my relatively short visit to Istanbul I clearly didn´t manage to check out all the baklava places of the city (wise enough of me ^_​^), but i´ve tried quite a few, and this one is definitely among my favourits. The baklava here is always super fresh — you can see it on its shiny golden surface, hear it while breaking through crispy layers with a fork, smell it, taste it, feel it — it´s a joy for all senses. The dough is so thin and delicate and at the same time crispy, the filling of ground nuts, spices and syrup is very sweet, but not just sweet — it has deep, rich and complex flavor, which is soothing and stimulating at the same time, calming and invigorating. The bad thing about all this heavenly deliciousness is that it makes addicted. Seriously, I´m not joking. Once you´ve made the first bite, you can say goodbye to stuff like common sense, self-​control and any considerations preventing overeating.
Well, now to some more pragmatic sides of the story: other shops with comparable quality (Hafiz Mustafa for example) charge more for their sweets creations, Saray has very moderate prices in comparison. Apart from sweets it also offers many budget lunch and dinner options — salads, soups, snacks, dishes with rice, cheese, meat, cooked veggies, different variations of kebap etc. I can´t comment on the quality tho — was too focused on the marvelous baklava ^_​^
The staff and the design of the shop don´t impress at all, but honestly i don´t care much since there was nothing to negatively affect my wonderful culinary experience.
Summing up: to anyone visiting Istanbul i would definitely recommend to check out this place and try their mouthwatering desserts. I bet you will enjoy them! But take one more tip from me: consider going to gym straight from the plane when you´re back home XD

There was a crowd outside watching them pour honey on the baklava, and we were afraid there was a wait, but once inside it wasn’t so bad. They were pretty full but there were seats available; we actually got a table right by the balcony on the second floor (though the windows were closed shut). This was around 1 pm on a Sunday.
You go up to the counter to order only if you want to get things to-​go. Otherwise, you seat yourself and get service.
There is no Wi-​Fi. The women’s bathroom was on the 5^th floor. Service was pretty fast considering the slow service you’d usually get at this type of café.
It cost 17 TL before tips for one Tavuk göğsü, coffee, and tea. See my photos for more details; this was my first time having this dessert so I’m not sure what is supposed to be like! I wasn’t wowed but it was more of a unique experience that I got out of eating the Tavuk göğsü.

Entgegen aller durchschnittlichen Bewertungen müssen wir für das Saray hier eine Lanze brechen. Schon beim Blick ins Schaufenster wird klar, dass dieser Laden auf süße Köstlichkeiten spezialisiert ist. Dementsprechend haben wir uns auch nur an den süßen Speisen versucht. Der Baklava und die Törtchen schmecken sehr gut, auch wenn sie wahre Kalorienbomben sind. Darüber denkt man am besten nicht nach und genießt einfach. Wer dabei das bunte Treiben auf der istiklal caddesi bestaunen möchte, ist auf einer der oberen Etagen am Fenster richtig.

Good for breakfast or a morning snack. Get a Turkish coffee and fresh börek with cheese. If you want to watch the bustling street as you eat, go up the stairs and sit by the window on one of the upper floors (salons).

It’s pretty rare that I say I would not return somewhere, this is one of those times however. Maybe I would go back to drink tea, except the outside seating is always full of cigarette smokers lounging about chain smoking. It’s intolerable. Inside seating isn’t much better because it’s a family restaurant so, loud with a lot of kid action. Beyond that, I have tried 3 things on the menu. I had the homemade chicken soup, a chicken sandwich and a salad which looked amazing on the menu with lentils and grains, raisins and walnuts. The salad was light on the grains but overall ok. The sandwich and the soup were bad. I will give them credit for apparently roasting their chicken in house. However when the chicken has clearly been refrigerated for days and reheated (possibly in the microwave) it’s disgusting. I guess the deserts are popular but I haven’t tried any.

We stopped here when needing something quick after we had landed. The meal was nothing special, and by the end of the night we felt like we didn’t feel like we were that satisfied, but we did have amazing service provided by the restaurant.

I’ve really experienced this place decline over the years. The portions (especially the doner) used to be so much larger. The prices used to be more reasonable, and the desserts used to be more special, almost magical (like the dripping burma desserts in the window). I used to come here everytime I came to Istanbul, but simply don’t feel like its worth it anymore.

I thought the baklava here is delicious! Flaky and melts rights in your mouth. Tons of other dessert options available too.